The Wounded
by sol113
Summary: In the aftermath of tragedy two badly damaged people find themselves unable to go back... takes place AU after One Year Later, and is based in the same universe as my earlier story Cass In Control.
1. Chapter 1

**THE WOUNDED**

**1st JANUARY 2013**

**CHAPTER 1- YOU CAN'T GO BACK **

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**This takes place after One Year Later, it is AU after the Andersen Gabrych run on the Batgirl series. **

**_Italics_**** in this story are Body language; the language Cassandra sees when looking at people, also the names of things.**

**_'This'_**** represents people's thoughts.**

**Horizontal rulers (lines across the page) are page breaks.**

**-X- means small time skips.**

**Warning; contains violence, angst...**

**This is based in the same universe as my other fic, Cass In Control.**

**DISCLAIMER; I don't own Batman, or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non profit.**

* * *

He heard screaming, explosions, wailing of sirens, blurs of light, shattering glass.

He saw faces. First terrified, screaming, sobbing. Then twisting into grotesque muscle tearing grins, their faces turning chalk white, their eyes reflecting madness as their brain chemistry was corrupted.

Rising above it all, was his awful laughter...

Rex Soffrire launched up from his nightmares in his home. He looked around in panic. His breathing was heavy, his heart racing as he realised he was safe- he was alone in his bedroom, in his parents' house, alone in the dark. He forced himself back down on his bed trying his hardest not to burst out sobbing- the teenager didn't need his parents or siblings seeing him emotionally come apart again.

_'Same dream again... I'll never get back to sleep now...'_

After a glance at his alarm clock, he decided to start his day early; he wiped the fear induced sweat off his face and put on a shirt-long sleeved to hide the cuts and burns across his arms. He left his room passing a tall wall mounted mirror on his way to the stairs; Rex was considered an attractive young man; bright blue eyes, light blond hair and a handsome, if unremarkable face.

He quietly navigated the stairs, the cooking staff wasn't awake yet and he didn't want to wake them.

Rex entered the huge, empty kitchen. After looking through the food stores for a minute he decided on some simple cereal, he wasn't in the mood to cook anything.

After his light breakfast and a wash with scalding hot water, Rex returned to his room and got dressed. Stepping into his walk-in closet he decided to go for a plain appearance consisting of black pants and a grey button up shirt. He didn't want to give his shrink anything about his appearance to use against him.

**-X-**

'_I don't want to see this again.'_

A city, once colourful and alive and thriving, now reduced to blackened, dead buildings. Bodies of a hundred thousand people floated with garbage and wreckage through the streets, now flooded with the poisonous sludge of the gigantic, toxic monstrosity known as Chemo. Within the sludge bodies floated straight up, familiar faces. One, a woman with red hair and glasses turned face up and opened her eyes.

"There's no going back this time, Cassandra."

The face transformed from Brenda Miller to Stephanie Brown, both murdered while they were too young...

Cassandra Cain, the third woman to don the identity of Batgirl, bolted up from her sleep, adopting a combat pose. Her dark coloured eyes scanned for threats only to discover that she was safe- she was alone in her bedroom.

She looked around at the room; quite large, she currently lived in a house in Bristol only a few minutes' walk from Wayne Manor with the recently married Barbara Gordon Grayson and Dick Grayson, the crimefighters known as Oracle and Nightwing respectively.

Her bedroom was decorated by Barbara; mostly white (probably trying to distance her from her Batgirl identity). On the nightstand there was a photo of Cassandra and Barbara together with Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon at Barbara's wedding to Dick Grayson (Cass was a bridesmaid- she hated the outfit). Other photos on the windowsill and the walls included one with Cass as a bridesmaid with an awkward smile as she tried to converse with Tim Drake, another with Cass and Barbara standing alone together (on the day the photographer had taken hundreds of pictures with individuals and groups in a seemingly endless variety of combinations).

There were no other pictures; none of Cass' murderous parents, no baby pictures, no images of her growing up, or with school friends.

'_That same dream again...'_

She ignored the images, both in her room and her dreams and began the first part of her workout involved a simple (to her) kata comprised of motions from numerous martial arts disciplines.

Both Tim Drake and Barbara had stated that Cassadra was beautiful when moving in this fashion, many would say she was beautiful when otherwise. Cassandra was exotic in appearance; standing at an impressive five foot eleven inches in height, long, strong legs attached to wide hips and a figure that seemed to be a perfect blend of femininity and athleticism, especially now that the Lazarus Pit had removed the dozens of scars from stab, bullet, cut and burn wounds she had endured over a lifetime of brutality. Her face was exotically beautiful as well; jet black, straight, shoulder length hair, dark eyes, skin and facial structure that merged Caucasian and Asian traits in a uniquely appealing manner.

After five minutes, the first part of her morning workout was finished. She went downstairs to her training room- the house was a Wayne property, with a secret facility beneath it purposed by Batman originally as a satellite Batcave after Gotham City was rebuilt after No Man's Land.

Among the caves amenities was 'The Dummy Room' which featured armies of punching bags and store mannequins, hundreds of them for Cass to pummel.

She spent the first few seconds of training weaving around the mannequins as though shadow boxing. She then lashed out with a kick to a plastic knee that snapped the limb into a freakish twisted angle that would have permanently crippled a human. Another doll fell as Cass mercilessly struck with a palm strike across the face. She mule kicked another mannequin between the legs smirking evilly as she imagined the effect it would have on a flesh and blood male opponent. In fact she didn't have to imagine it; she knew the effect very well.

Now moving in a dance of violence she flattened another dummy with an elbow strike to the face with the force to shatter a jaw. Just like two nights ago; she had seen a thug threaten a woman with a knife and she levelled the unfortunate criminal with a brutal shot to the jaw. An image of the punk in a hospital bed with his jaws wired shut pleased her. Yet another kick- this one to the solar plexus- broke another dummy in two. Another ruthless knee shot sent the umpteenth dummy face first to the floor.

She grabbed the fallen dummies right arm and twisted knowing that the force and torque would tear the rotator cuff clear off the bone. She knew because she had done it and similar assaults to quite a few criminals over the past few months.

**-X-**

**Gotham City- Newtown**

It was midday and Rex Soffrire sat in the office of Doctor Christine Oliver, a psychiatrist who he'd been seeing for the past month now. The wallpaper was a mix of white and an appalling shade of pink. The walls were decorated with copies of degrees and pictures of natural beauties such as waterfalls and sunsets, the shrinks oak desk had pictures of a happy looking family on it. Behind the desk, the doctor herself sat, smartly dressed in a beige pantsuit- probably meant to be disarming. Sandy brown hair was down, green eyes alive with professionalism. She wore makeup- too much in Rex's view. She had just asked the same question he always asked Rex when he came.

Rex gave the same answer he always gave;

"The same." He shrugged.

He hated coming here, he had enough people thinking he was nuts- but this had become Standard operating procedure in Gotham City for victims of costumed superterror attacks.

"Have you been writing a diary or blog like we spoke about last time?" She asked sounded concerned.

"What's the point?" Rex tried to sit still and be as apathetic as possible. He didn't want to be here, and knew this condescending intellectual wasn't helping. But he did know there was something really wrong with him and didn't like people tiptoeing around it.

The doctor noted something down on an ipad. Apparently she was not a fan of the old school pen and paper.

"Still has trust issues." Rex read aloud- he had wondered for a while if the shrink knew he was actually highly intelligent and could easily read writing upside down.

The doctor stopped writing. "Rex, you suffered extreme trauma, it will take time for you to readjust to normal life. Writing a diary about things will help."

Rex snorted bitterly.

"Nothing ever happens to me."

**-X-**

Half an hour later...

The meeting finally ended, Rex barely suppressed running out of the therapist's office. His control was slipping; he was sweating, his muscles cramped painfully, his mind wasn't right- even by his current standards. He rushed into a bathroom. He was relieved when he saw no one was around. He rolled up his sleeve, pulled a small cigarette lighter out of his pocket. He lit a flame and dangled the tips of his fingers in the fire. The burning pain in his fingertips relaxed him as he leaned against the tiled wall of the empty restroom.

He flicked the lighter off and looked at the now reddened flesh of his fingertips.

"Oh hell what is wrong with me?" He asked aloud in a dreamy tone of voice.

**-X-**

**Gotham City, City Docks, Gang Warehouse, Night time**

A knife flashed through the air straight at Batgirl's masked eyes. She ducked and thrust her hand up hitting the knife wielding robber with a thumb strike to the throat. The six foot, two hundred thirty pound man dropped the knife, folding over coughing spastically. Cassandra then did something she wouldn't have done before the Bludhaven disaster; she grabbed him by the hair and slammed him through the cracked window of the warehouse's manager's office.

**CRASH!**

He cried out in pain; the sound a raspy choking noise as pieces of glass dug into his scalp and face. His fellow gang members, a group called the River Rippers, responsible for a variety of crimes including smuggling and dealing narcotics, stared in horror as they realized they were in for a world of hurt even by Gotham standards. They charged Batgirl. In response she grabbed the wounded first gang member, twisted his arm into an unnatural position that likely damaged bone or ligaments and hurled him at his comrades with a modified Judo throw.

The second gang member swung at Cassandra with a pair of Brass knuckles. She caught the attacker by the wrist, dug in her thumb at a crucial pressure point causing the thug to gasp with such agony that the six foot male nearly dropped to his knees. Casually, Batgirl twisted her arm and broke her opponent's wrist.

"GRAAAHHHH! OH GOD! OH GOD!" Cassandra let him go and watched as he rolled around the warehouse clutching his broken limb.

"Hey man, what the hell is wrong with you!? You Bats take people down with minimal force- you know, gentle like?" The gang leader, a two time felon named Leroy Brown shouted.

"Oh, but I am being gentle..."

This was the first time Leroy had heard Batgirl speak and the voice scared the hell out of him.

"Want to see me get rough?"

Leroy ran like hell.

He didn't get very far, Batgirl flying kicked the fleeing man in the back, he hit the ground hard, but conscious.

She flipped him over with her foot so the terrified gang member could see her towering over him. She pressed him down with her foot on his chest. Leroy unwisely grabbed at her leg to push her off.

"Here's rough." Batgirl said. She bent over, grabbed a hold of Leroy's arm at the wrist and elbow and twisted hard, breaking a bone in the forearm, tearing ligaments in the elbow and pulling the whole limb into a grotesquely unnatural angle.

Leroy Brown's screams echoed through the warehouse.

Batgirl watched as the broken agonised man spasm in agony beneath her. She saw movement in the corner of her eye and readied a Batarang to deal with it. A mouse came scurrying through, past a broken mirror. She saw herself in it, powerful, terrifying, heartless, just like...

'_No I'm not Cain! I'm not Shiva! I'm... I'm...'_ She looked down, as though seeing the now sobbing, begging man for the first time.

_'What have I done?'_ She backed away from Leroy. Then ran away as fast as she could. When she was a block away from the warehouse she collapsed to her knees and pulled her mask off, sucking in great gasps of air as she sobbed sickened by what she had done.

_'I enjoyed hurting them... just like Shiva... just like... oh God what is wrong with me?'_

Today was the one year anniversary of Bludhaven's destruction. One year since Brenda Miller and Zero's deaths- amongst one hundred thousand others- brutally killed and forgotten.

Cassandra Cain curled into a ball on the rooftop crying.

**END PART 1**

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTES**

Part of the reason Cass is so violent is because she considers Batman's minimal force method ineffectual and is questioning the point of doing what she is doing, as well as the purpose of her life. This is something I intend to go into more depth with in future chapters.

The destruction of Bludhaven seems to be something that was glossed over in the DCU- here it has many consequences, such as making Cassandra angry and violent.

What does anyone think about the title? I'm not good with titles and may change it to something else.


	2. Faces in motion

**THE WOUNDED**

**CHAPTER 2-STRANGERS IN MOTION  
**

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**This takes place after One Year Later, it is AU after the Andersen Gabrych run on the Batgirl series. **

**_Italics_**** in this story are Body language; the language Cassandra sees when looking at people, also the names of things.**

**_'This'_**** represents people's thoughts.**

**Horizontal rulers (lines across the page) are page breaks.**

**-X- means small time skips.**

**Warning; contains violence, angst...**

**This is based in the same universe as my other fic, Cass In Control.**

**DISCLAIMER; I don't own Batman, or any of the characters or ideas involved. This is non-profit.**

* * *

**MARTHA THOMAS HIGH SCHOOL**

It was a sunny morning and Cassandra Cain sat in the office of Doctor Brianna Compton, a therapist who she'd been seeing for the several months she'd been attending school. The wallpaper was a mix of white and an unflattering shade of green. The walls were decorated with images of exotic animals and brightly coloured plants with copies of degrees from fancy Universities practically mocking the young woman new to education. Despite the warmth of the day the teen (biologically chronologically she was in her early twenties as estimated from records Batman had taken from David Cain) sat wearing baggy clothes of dark colours. Her dark shoulder length hair was in its usual tight, short ponytail.

In a padded chair directly opposite an identical one in which the young crimefighter sat, was the doctor herself, smartly dressed in a grey skirt and light red cardigan a bland outfit for a seemingly unremarkable individual. She had long bright blond hair and light blue eyes which always reminded Cassandra of the late Stephanie Brown.

There were differences between the pair; Compton wore only light makeup- Steph caked it on by the pound to cover up the bruises and scars her costumed identity brought her. Also unlike the former Spoiler, the Doctor seemed to have no illusions about how dark and cruel the world was. Stephanie never understood until it was too late.

Dr Compton had just asked the same question she always asked Cassandra when she came.

Cass gave the same answer she always gave;

"I'm fine." She shrugged.

Cassandra Cain sat, trying to look as bored and apathetic as possible to hide the revulsion and horror of what had happened recently. Her act wasn't working. Despite being able to read the tiniest bit of body language and decipher it to see its meaning, the biological teenager was terrible at hiding her own body language from others outside of combat. So Brianna Compton, one of several psychiatrists assigned to the Martha Thomas High School, an educational institute built under a mandate by Batman (officially Bruce Wayne) devoted to reaching out to children affected by meta-human and other costumed villains, saw a storm of emotions in the young girl sitting before her.

Emotions that disturbed her.

Cassandra hated having to come to these sessions once a month, she wasn't good at explaining herself to people in general, she didn't want to talk about the problems to Batman or Barbara or anyone else, and in these meetings with outsiders she was always afraid she would say something to compromise either herself or others.

After the crisis that threatened all of reality, Batman had decided to force Cassandra into getting a 'normal' life; she had been entered into official documents as an American citizen (thanks to Oracle's hacking), her name was listed as Cassandra Cain, daughter of two individuals lost when the city of Bludhaven was destroyed by the Society of Evil, the story went on to say she was discovered in the ruins of the city by officer Dick Grayson, one of the few survivors of the Bludhaven police force and later adopted by him and his wife Barbara. Amnesia, brought on either by trauma or metahuman toxins explained away her lack of information about her former life.

"Is this where you ask about how things are at home again? Or talk about my dreams?" Cass muttered, she had practiced saying that for maximum effect.

The counsellor's smile didn't waver. Dr Compton annoyed Cassandra in several ways; first was that she was always being cheerful, the second was that they were sitting down, so she couldn't use her superior height (Compton stood at five foot, six inches tall- five inches beneath Cass who currently stood at five foot eleven) to subtly intimidate her. Her chemical bath in the Lazarus pit (courtesy of her insane mother after her never before mentioned, even more insane pseudo brother had stabbed her through the heart) had reversed her age and removed the countless wounds and scars to her body taken from a lifetime of violence. It hadn't made her shorter though. She didn't seem to be gaining any new height as she grew older, which was good news as the attractive Amerasian stood out enough as it was, especially among teenage males.

The other things that annoyed Cass about the Doctor included her attempts to get inside Cassandra's head and mess with her personal business and the fact that all her attempts to provoke the older woman failed.

Cassandra fidgeted in her chair wishing she was anywhere other than here.

**-X-**

A legitimately apathetic and uncaring Rex Soffrire walked through the halls of the Martha Thomas High School. This was his first day at what sounded to him like an open air sanitarium.

He sat through his first assembly at his new school held by a short man who looked in his thirties named Mr Chapman- Rex's attention was briefly piqued by the fact that Chapman had a cane and walked with a limp that he suspected wasn't a natural condition.

Becoming bored again he looked around the auditorium. He knew at least some of the people here were victims of metahuman and costumed crime. To his eyes the assembled group mostly looked normal, there were a couple of odd ones out; including a kid with bandages covering his hands, neck and part of his face and a kid trembling as though on the verge of a panic attack.

_'Probably a victim of Scarecrow's fear gas.'_

Rex stopped and wondered what these kids thought of Nolan's law, the controversial ruling that passed shortly after the destruction of Bludhaven.

Nolan's law stated that a proven terrorist considered insane could legally be executed if they were considered an ongoing and intolerable threat to the public. In any city other than Gotham such a law would never have passed, but the people of the_ 'City of the Madmen'_ as the rest of the world had labelled it, had been terrorized by costumed lunatics wielding everything from guns to biochemical weapons on a practically weekly basis for over a decade and incarceration had proven ridiculously ineffective as a deterrent or a protection.

The Joker, arguably the worst of them all, was the first to go; strapped down on a table, covered by a SWAT Team and injected with a fatal cocktail of barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution. A rather anticlimactic end to a terrorist who considered mass murder a performance.

His execution had made it onto Youtube. Sixty million hits in under one hour with comments like _"He should have been drawn and quartered" "he should have been fed feet first into a wood chipper" "he should have been castrated, poisoned, shot, stabbed, clubbed, incinerated, beheaded..."_

Rex didn't feel any closure about his situation from watching the twisted monsters deaths. Or any of the murderous maniacs who followed him to the needle. He wondered if anyone did.

The bell rung and everyone filed out of the stuffy assembly room. Rex followed briefly then left behind everyone on autopilot.

**-X-**

Cassandra stood alone outside on the school's grassy campus watching people with her all-seeing eyes. Their fear, their happiness, their hope was all clear to see. Emotions she didn't see in the mirror anymore.

_'I don't belong here. But do I belong anywhere?' _

She saw something strange in the corner of her eye; emotions, dark, desperate... familiar...

**-X-**

Rex saw a couple- a boy and a girl of similar age to him, embracing, happy, joyful, so much passion and energy, feelings Rex hadn't felt in a lifetime.

_'I don't feel it...'_ Rex's chest felt tight, he felt dizzy, felt like screaming at the happy couple. Cursing them for their joy. He turned away and rushed back into the school.

He found a classroom that was empty. He entered, looked around for something. His eyes found a slightly worn silver kettle. He filled it with water and turned it on tapping his fingers against the tabletop almost desperately as it heated up. When steam began pouring out he picked it up and carelessly poured a small stream of scalding hot water onto his left arm- already covered in scars from previous abuse.

The burning pain anchored him to the world. He sat back and exhaled unaware he was being watched.

**-X-**

Cassandra had followed the teen (she didn't know him- or any of her schoolmates for that matter), seeing something disturbingly familiar in his body language; a despair and disconnect that she, as Batgirl, and in her travels all over the world, had seen in drug addicts and suicide jumpers.

She waited silently, watching through a window as he put the kettle on then proceeded to burn himself. She wasn't surprised. The super heroine knew from personal experience how pain could remind you that you were alive.

The trained assassin studied the unaware young man. Seeing him as only she could; observing every muscle, every vein, the emotions hidden from others, everything about him, enrapt and breathless, as though in a trance.

"Hey baby, what you looking at?" Cass' head whipped around lightning fast, disbelieving that she was so focused on some idiot hurting himself that she let someone sneak up on her, least of all him.. Paul Bentley; football star, stereotype jock and a senior dog who reportedly had slept with half the cheerleaders, Cass could tell he hadn't, that Paul (despite his football status) was still a virgin- his annoying personality driving off even the most shallow and empty-headed girl.

"You want to do something later?"

Cass was unimpressed by the linebacker. "All the cheerleaders say no already?"

"Look , you've got nothing better to do than play with me." He put his hand on Cass' shoulder in what was supposed to be a gesture of dominance. Cass just smiled. _'I was waiting for a reason...'_

"Oh, I don't think you want to play with me..."

**CRASH!**

"Get off me you crazy gggkkk!" Taken down by a simple Judo takedown executed faster than a civilian could see, Paul's protests were cut off by a foot pressing down on his windpipe.

**-X-**

Rex leapt to his feet, broken out of his pain fuelled high.

"I don't like... talking." The unfamiliar voice sounded strange to Rex's ears. The words sounded alien and flat, disconnected from emotions they should carry.

Rex watched astonished as a male built like a linebacker tried in vain to get the girl half his size off him, he looked up her long legs, while the grey cargo pants she wore hid their shape he somehow knew they were built perfectly. A sleeveless black shirt was slightly more generous; fitting across her body tracing a generous c-cup cleavage. Then he saw her face; more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. He felt himself falling into her eyes, as black as deep space yet alive with something beautiful and terrifying; pleasure at the suffering of the inferior being beneath her foot. Somehow Rex had enough brainpower left to pull out his camera phone and take a picture of the... Goddess in front of him.

Cass turned and looked straight at Rex and he imagined for a moment that the look alone could kill him.

They both stared at each other; Rex in terror yet also amazement. Cassandra saw it in his body and froze not knowing what to do.

**BRRRRIINNNNGGGG!**

A bell, obnoxious and deafeningly loud, rang out, breaking the pair out of their individual trances.

Cass left first, gliding off without a look back. Rex moved on instinct following her nearly stepping on the terrified Paul's left hand in the process as he breathlessly followed the mystery girl.

* * *

**Hours later...**

At the end of the school day, a still stunned Rex was on autopilot as he stepped silently into his older sister Abigail's car. Family members had sent her to drop him off and retrieve him from school as they didn't trust him to drive or walk anywhere on his own. He got in the black _1999 BMW_ 735iE38.

He sat in the back, not noticing the world going by.

He pulled out his phone and studied the picture he had taken for the thousandth time that day studying it as though it were sacred.

They soon returned to his home; it wasn't Wayne Manor but it was ostentatious; which sickened Rex these days; Lucas Soffrire, his father was a lawyer. Rex couldn't remember if he was a prosecutor or a defender (probably didn't want to know) only that knowing his father's cold, ruthless personality his legal style probably made Johnny Cochrane look ethical.

Without words they entered the building.

Their mother, professor of sciences at Gotham University Olivia Soffrire embraced her unresponsive son long enough for the eighteen year old to feel like everyone thought he was delicate and about to shatter like glass.

His father, looking infallible in his obscenely high-priced suit, as always, barely acknowledged his presence. As a self-made success he expected his children to solve and overcome any of their problems on their own and he had no time or tolerance for those who failed to live up to his standards.

**-X-**

After an awkward meal around an oversized, grossly expensive antique table, Rex retired to his room without a word to his family.

Sighing at finally having the peace to do what he wanted, Rex removed his phone. He sucked in a breath as he looked at the picture of the stunning girl standing tall over her fallen prey.

He copied the picture onto his computer. He studied the now larger picture fascinated.

Before his life was shattered by a deranged costumed superterrorist, Rex was a computer expert- a hacker. He chose tonight to dust off his skills and easily broke into his new schools database.

He flew through files on the students one by one at astounding speed looking at the pictures until he found a picture that stopped his heart; dark eyes, jet black hair, exotic coloured skin.

A name above it; Cassandra Cain.

He read her profile not knowing it was false.

_'Born in Bludhaven... survived the attack one year ago... She was a member of the Art Club. A painting of hers had won a prize in an art show hosted by the Wayne Foundation...'_

He clicked on a link to the painting entitled _Blood Matters_, then recoiled in shock at the disturbing abstract image that appeared.

_'That is really creepy.' _

**-X-**

Cassandra had finished her homework. Her reading and writing skills were still weak, explained away by a form of dyslexia caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, but the rest of her academic skills placed her as a young genius, her success was a consequence of the "succeed or die" nature of her life, both while being trained by Cain, surviving alone on the streets and as Batgirl.

It wasn't dark yet, usually Cass would do her homework, then sleep until dark at which point she'd enter costume and patrol as Batgirl.

Tonight however, the vigilante couldn't sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about the self-destructive stranger at school.

_'I've seen more damaged people than him... in and out of that school... it isn't my problem... and I couldn't help even if it was... all I can do is fight... and hurt people...'_

As it was increasingly common when she became despondant, the young woman pulled out a writing pad and began putting down lines, that became shapes, then abstract emotions. The daughter of Shiva was an aspiring artist; introduced to it by art teacher Mrs Bailey, a survivor of a supervillain attack, she never asked which one.

**-X-**

Rex overheard shouting between his mother and father, probably about business again.

He felt a wave of dizziness and heard screaming and laughter, blurred images from his nightmares.

Panicking he pulled out his lighter(he had deliberately broken the fire detector in his room weeks ago). He flicked the flame on and pressed it against his arm. The flame sent agony through his body. His face turned from terror to twisted pain to relief to joy. He held the flame to his arm for a full minute. When the flame flicked off there was a significant red burn on his arm. He put on a jumper to hide the most recent mutilation of his body. He turned back to the image of his mystery girl- Cassandra.

* * *

**The next day...**

Rex had been looking forward to school.

He saw the girl in class, she looked sullen in unremarkable baggy clothes.

He asked the girl next to him (Sadie he thought her name was) about her, only to discover that the girl of his attention didn't socialize much with anyone in school.

He followed her out of class but didn't get close. At lunch he filmed her eating with two others he didn't recognize.

When lunch ended the class they shared had Gym, they were divided into groups. He was not with Cassandra.

After getting eliminated in a pointless game of dodge ball he went off to find her, he hadn't been able to think of anything else yet he hadn't spoken a single word to her.

He found her. Cassandra's group (which were all female for some reason) were swimming in the school's indoor pool playing what he believed was water polo (very amateur of course).

From a distance he watched her swimming and splashing around. He noticed very quickly that she didn't seem to be exerting herself, she was holding back even though she moved through the water with a speed and grace that stunned other players in the water.

_'It's like she's-'_ His mind froze as Cassandra's head turned and she looked right at him, even though he was hidden from view. He panicked and hid.

After cowering for a minute, Rex remembered something he had heard on a documentary (or it could have been a video game) about snipers. He changed position figuring he could watch Cassandra from a different angle

Rex was more careful not to be spotted this time, he didn't want Cassandra to think he was some crazed stalker (even if he was). He stood on a wooden shipping pallet propped up dangerously on its side while he watched and filmed through a window like some pervert.

Rex's eyes widened as he saw the group of young women had left the pool. He was close enough to see water drops run off their bodies but no Ms Cain was present. The scene of dripping wet, athletic, beautiful young women stretching their limbs and bouncing up and down left him cold as the one person was looking for wasn't there. He leaned in closer not caring that it increased the chance of being spotted.

**CRASH!**

The pallet broke beneath him and he crashed to the ground dropping his phone and twisting his ankle. He tried to stand, but his foot gave beneath him.

Rex sat on the ground._ 'No one's come out to lynch the pervert... I guess they're too busy in there...'_

He picked up his phone, checking to see if it was damaged. The phone was immediately snatched from his hands. He turned and froze in fear as he saw a swimsuit clad, dripping wet Cassandra Cain tapping the touch screen of the device.

For a moment he was frozen in fear unable to say anything as the still dripping wet Cassandra manipulated the device she'd taken from him.

It was so fast he didn't see her move. Rex was struck by a pain like nothing he had experienced, nothing he had imagined. He fell to his knees. Cass stood inches away from his face looking down on him holding him by his crotch.

"Did you know that putting too much pressure on the penis can damage muscles, nerves or blood vessels causing... impotency?" She spoke coldly.

Rex shivered in agony and fear. He looked up and fell into Cassandra's dark eyes, beautiful yet merciless.

"Pressure... like what I'm giving you." Her grip on Rex's cock tightened ever so slightly. "A little more pressure from my fingers... and you never feel like a man again." The cold tone of voice, and the nature of the threat itself would have had any sane man cowering in terror.

"I will ask questions ... you have one chance... lie to me... and you lose something... very important..."

She looked him in the eyes.

"What do you want?"

He thought for a minute, he didn't know what he wanted.

A slight twist on his lower regions caused a surge of pain so intense he gasped and nearly cried out.

"What do you want?" She repeated, slowly increasing the tightness of her grip. Stars began to flicker before Rex's eyes and he wondered if he would black out then wake up as a eunuch.

"Y-you." He gasped out.

"For what?"

A long hesitation. Even Rex didn't know what he was doing.

"I- I don't know... I just... when I saw you yesterday... beating that guy up-"

"You thought you'd use me to beat someone you don't like up." She supplied.

"No!" Rex blurted out, Cass saw no deception in his body- a lot of pain though. She moved on.

"So you want to change me, make me girly, or..." She struggled to find the word. "Submissive?"

"No I don't want to change anything about you!"

Cass blinked, surprised. Everyone she had ever met either wanted to control her. To use her as a tool or weapon or change her into something else; even Barbara wanted her to be the normal happy seventeen year old high school student she pretended to be. Which wasn't possible given what she'd experienced in her life.

"You don't know anything about me." She eased her grip on Rex's manhood, her previously terrifying confidence faltering.

"But... I want to..." He gasped out looking at her with an emotion that disturbed Cass; awe.

There was a bang. Cass turned and heard chatter coming closer. She released her deathgrip on Rex's lower anatomy. Only her other hand on Rex's chest stopped him from keeling over.

"Meet me in the Gym tomorrow after school... if you really want to know me." She turned and ran off leaving Rex kneeling, bent over, terrified and more aroused than he had ever been in his life despite nearly getting castrated.

**END CHAPTER 2**

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTES**

**MARTHA THOMAS HIGH SCHOOL**- A school designed to assist individuals (mostly teenagers) affected by metahuman crime. Founded by Batman. Based on the Thomas Wayne High School from Dan Ingram's excellent Fanfic _Cassandra Cain, The Batgirl_.

**NOLAN'S LAW-** Based on the fact that the cycle of "villain runs rampant, kills people, Batman punches him out, sends him to Arkham, villain escapes within three months, runs rampant again, repeat," has been used to truly ridiculous levels and would never happen in the real world.


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